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The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends it. It's an issue that many disagree on. These days, most pedis prescribe it in keeping with the AAP guideline, but not all parents give it. I'm one who chooses not to. Kellymom.com has some good info if you want to research it for yourself!

If your baby is black, has very dark skin, and does not go out in the sun without sunscreen then your baby may need vitamin D. Vitamin D isn't really a vitamin its sunshine. There were some black breastfed toddlers that got rickets.

I would not give vitamin D to a young baby. I would take the baby in the sun. I think the hazards that vitamins could do to the digestive track outweigh any possible benefit. I live in AZ and it wasn't an issue for us since my grandson went out in the son. It would be a problem if we were the kind of people that left the baby in the car seat and carried it around with a blanket over it. Of course you don't want to much sun exposure or sunburn.

I live above the 45th parallel, so we tend to be deficient in Vit D. Our dr is very homeopathic and tests for Vit D levels in just about it. DD was tested at 2.5, at the end of the summer, and was very low. After a year on 2-4000 IUs a day of Vit D, her levels were perfect.

Vit D is not only essential in calcium asborption, its also a huge in immune health. With the amount of Vit D I take (10k a day in the winter, 4k a day in the summer) I dont think an excsluvely breastfed baby of mine woulld need added Vit D.

The majority of BF babies are low on Vit D. The best source of Vit D is the sun. Just spend 10 min outdoors with you LO and that's all they'll need. I did buy some Vit D drops but haven't had to use them yet because we are outside almost everyday. I figure we'll need them during the colder months.

My pediatrician gave my some Vitamin D drops and said 1 dropper full a day. He said that breastfed babies do not get it and it doesn't matter how much of the vitamin mom gets baby needs it. So yes this is true.

one of the problems with the poly vi sol is that it is made for ff babies BY formula companies. another issue is the other vitamins in it that bf babies don't need. i sometimes supplemented with vitamin d only drops, after dd was 6 months and only during the winter months. you can get them at health food stores.

Quoting mommyto4rugrats:

My sons dr said that and the lactation lady i talked to last week said they needed 400i/u a day- which they get that in the poly-vi-sol vitamins.

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